Wandering Ivies Across the Country

When I shared yesterday that there was a lot of alumni results to cover from this past weekend, I was not kidding. Adding in the Boston Marathon results, we have a loaded Wandering Ivies entry. We span from Oregon to California to Texas to New Jersey to Massachusetts in this issue.

Two members of HepsNation won events at the Oregon Relays on Friday and Saturday. Kate Grace (Yale/Oiselle), who recently relocated to the West Coast, opened her 2014 outdoor season with a 800m win in 2:04.52. The other winner was Princeton/Oregon steeplechaser Mel Newbery, who challenged herself in the 10,000m and won in a near 3 minute PR, 34:45.85. Other HepsNation alumni who competed at the Oregon Relays include Matt Miner (3:43.85 for 3rd in 1,500m), Nathan Mathabane (3:46.71 for 6th in 1,500m), and Alexi Pappas (4:19.58 for 2nd in 1,500m).

Another large HepsNation alumni presence was at the Larry Ellis Invitational. The highlight for the meet came in the women’s steeplechase, where Ashley Higginson (Princeton/Saucony New Jersey) dominated the event and won in a WORLD-LEADING time of 9:35.72 (a little over a second from her PR). Other Ivy competitors include Donn Cabral (3:43.59 for 5th in 1,500m) and Erik Berg (3:51.15 for 27th in 1,500m).

Two recent graduates competed at two meets honoring recent Olympic gold medalists. Peter Callahan (Princeton/New Mexico) set a new personal best in the 1,500m with 3:44.05, finishing 13th in the event at the Bryan Clay Invitational (California). Over at the Michael Johnson Classic in Texas, Phil Royer (Dartmouth/Tulsa) finished 3rd in the 1,500m in 3:56.26, making steady progress as he returns from an indoor season injury.

The other major HepsNation gathering was in Boston.

On Saturday, the Boston Athletic Association hosted elite mile and 5,000m races around Coply Square and Boston Commons. Morgan Uceny (Cornell/adidas) took control early in the 3-lap women’s elite mile raceand held on for the win in 4:44.0. It is her 3rd BAA Mile win after winning in 2010 and 2012. Ben True (Dartmouth/Saucony) was edged out by 0.04 seconds for the BAA Elite Men 5km title by Dejen Gebremeskel after the two of them, along with Stephen Sambu, battled it out during the last 400 meters. Both True and Gebremeskel were registered with the time of 13:26. True was quoted after the race saying “That’s a world-class field, a nice field to be with at the end of the race. I tried to be the last one to make a move at the end of the race down the finishing stretch. I don’t think I had, I think I was one step short,” he said. “It gives me good confidence I haven’t lost anything.”

And of course, we had yesterday’s Boston Marathon. We asked “who ran”, and you answered. So far, we have a list of 15 16 people affiliated with the Ivy League (former athletes and coaches) who finished the race on Monday (we can add more names to the list, so send us some feedback if you know of any more!):

And lastly, we recommend you check out Reddit.com tonight, as the NJ*NY Track Club (which includes Kyle Merber, Erik Berg, Deliliah Dicrescenzo, Ashley Higginson, and Genna Hartung, to name a few) will be featured on the Ask Me Anything at 8:30 pm.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014 at 7:00 am. It is filed under Alumni, Spotlight.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.